Therapeutic education is a process of strengthening the capacities of the patient and/or those around him to take charge of the condition that affects him. It is complementary and inseparable from treatment and care, the relief of symptoms, the prevention of complications. It contributes to the improvement of the patient’s health (biological, clinical) and to the improvement of his quality of life and that of his loved ones.

It is in this context that, during the visit of the Yezu Mwiza Service mobile clinic to Magara on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, particular emphasis was placed on therapeutic education in relation to taking medication as explained Doctor Gaston IRANKUNDA, head of this SYM mobile unit: “The follow-up of PLHIV is a long-term job, that’s why, for a patient who has to take treatment all his life, therapeutic education is necessary, even obligatory, to avoid laxity in taking medication, which often leads to non-compliance. We want all of our patients to become compliant with treatment in order to have an undetectable viral load and thus curb the spread of HIV.”

Usually, it is the patient who goes to a health facility. The Service Yezu Mwiza has found that most of its beneficiaries are vulnerable and do not have the means to come every time to pick up the drugs or seek treatment. Guided by the compassion of Jesus, he implemented a mobile clinic strategy, it is the Yezu Mwiza Service which goes to the patient with all its package of services, in a place closer to his locality, so that the latter no longer have to travel long distances in search of care, but also to help those bedridden people who can no longer come and get their medicine (home visit).

Beneficiaries of the Yezu Mwiza Service greatly appreciate that the mobile clinic has reduced their long journey to seek care services: “With the mobile clinic coming to our locality, everything has become easy for me, I have a easy access to ARV and non-ARV treatment, free consultation and also therapeutic education, my state of health has improved, my viral load is undetectable, I have regained the joy of living, whereas before, I was desperate,” said one SYM beneficiary in Magara.

The manager of the mobile clinic also indicates that this strategy is a sigh of relief, as it gives vulnerable beneficiaries easy and free access to healthcare services: “When they go to the other structures, they have to pay the fees travel and expenses for any services they require. Anyone who can’t afford it won’t go for treatment. The Yezu Mwiza Service therefore wanted to help these vulnerable people by allowing them easy and free access to all its services (consultation, additional examinations, therapeutic education as well as medication for the management of both HIV and other conditions) close to their homes,” he adds.

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Service Yezu Mwiza {SYM} communication team